The top reported proficiency rate is 66% in Math. The lowest is 61% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Kingswood Elementary
Kingswood Elementary sits in central Cary on Johnson Street, serving a full early-elementary band from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Wake County Schools. The school's enrollment is typical for its grade span, with the largest cohorts in the lower grades and smaller classes as students move up. The student body is notably diverse: no single racial or ethnic group makes up more than about a third of the school, with substantial representation across Asian, Black, Hispanic, and white families. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting economic diversity in the school's catchment area.
State testing data for grades three through five show proficiency levels that sit in the middle range. In mathematics, about two-thirds of tested students met proficiency. In English language arts, the proficiency rate is somewhat lower, with about three-fifths of students proficient. Science scores fall between those two marks. These results tell a straightforward story: Kingswood has students at multiple skill levels, with the majority meeting grade-level benchmarks but a meaningful share working below them. A parent considering this school should ask the teachers directly how the school supports students who are not yet proficient and what the school's approach is to bringing them along, and conversely what enrichment looks like for students ahead of grade level.
Cary itself is a large, affluent planned suburban town that has been growing steadily for decades on the strength of Research Triangle Park and tech employers like SAS Institute and Epic Games. The town has a historic downtown core with walkable blocks and recent investment in civic amenities like Downtown Cary Park, but most neighborhoods—including the one where Kingswood sits—are car-oriented subdivisions with single-family homes and schools on neighborhood campuses. Housing values in the area are substantial; median rental costs reflect a middle-to-upper-middle-class residential market. The town has been actively adding affordable housing units in recent years through public investment, though the overall housing stock skews toward owner-occupied and higher-priced rental units.
Wake County Schools is a large district managing a fast-growing student population across a sprawling, multi-county footprint. The district is currently implementing its first district-wide cellphone policy, requiring elementary and middle school students to keep phones stored away throughout the day—a change taking effect this school year. More significantly for Kingswood's families, Wake has made a foundational shift to science-of-reading instruction in elementary grades; all PreK-5 teachers completed intensive LETRS training, which the district wrapped up in 2024. This means the pedagogy of how reading is taught has changed substantially, with more explicit attention to phonics and decoding. The district has also been managing a series of large-scale student reassignments to accommodate growth and new school openings. A November 2024 reassignment plan moved students across multiple schools, and another plan approved in November 2025 affecting additional schools goes into effect in 2026-27. This is important practical context: Kingswood families should check whether their assignment is stable or whether boundary changes are likely in the next few years. The district also passed a major school construction bond in 2022 that has funded five new schools and renovations across the system, financed through a modest property-tax increase.
Kingswood offers a traditional public elementary pathway in a diverse, growing suburban setting. The school's test results are solidly middle-range for the county's schools, meaning it is neither a high-performing outlier nor a low-performing one. For families moving to the area or seeking an elementary school in Cary, Kingswood represents a neighborhood school with a mixed-ability student body and adequate core instruction. Parents should examine the school's specific supports for reading and math (given the district-wide Science of Reading rollout) and check whether the school's boundaries are expected to change in the next reassignment cycle.
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